Synopsis

This novel centers on the "It's me" telephone scam, targeting especially the elderly, that has escalated in Japan since the year 2000. In a typical case the caller identifies himself only by saying "Hey, it's me," and goes on to claim in great distress that he's been in an accident or lost some funds he was entrusted with at work, etc., and needs money wired to his account right away.

The first "It's me" con of the story is Hitoshi Nagano, 30, who works in the camera department of a volume-sales electrical appliance store. One day when he is eating at McDonalds, a man about his own age named Daiki Hiyama inadvertently sets his cell phone down on Hitoshi's tray, and Hitoshi makes off with it. On a whim, he uses it to call Daiki's mother, pretending he is Daiki, and he gets her to wire 900,000 yen (about US$9,000) to his account. Three days later, Hitoshi returns home from work to discover Daiki's mother there in his apartment, expecting him as though he were Daiki and seeming to truly believe that he is her son. Thinking this very odd, Hitoshi decides to visit his parents, whom he has not seen in two years, and finds a man who works for city hall living with them as their son; his own mother treats him as a stranger. The man doesn't look like him in the least, and he's clearly the wrong age, but Hitoshi quickly realizes that he is another "It's me" scammer like himself. At a loss for what else to do, Hitoshi begins living as Daiki, and no one seems to bat an eye. Yet another "It's me" scammer soon enters the story?a college student named Nao. The three men get on very well with eachother?they are all "me," after all?meeting frequently at Nao's apartment and becoming increasingly interdependent. As time passes, the me's about town multiply, and women come to join their ranks as well . . .

In this brilliant probing of self and identity, author Tomoyuki Hoshino elevates what might have been a commonplace crime story to an occasion for philosophical reflection, delivering an essential read for contemplating the state of Japanese society today.

About the Author

Tomoyuki Hoshino(1965–) was born in Los Angeles but moved to Japan when he was two. After university, he worked as a journalist at one of Japan’s major newspapers, then went to Mexico for further study and fell in love with soccer and Latin America. He made his debut as a writer in 1998 when the novella Saigo no toiki (Last Gasp) won the Bungei Prize. In 2000 he established his reputation as a serious literary writer with the novel Mezameyo to ningyo wa utau (“Wake Up,” Sings the Mermaid), which won the Mishima Yukio Prize. Fantajisuta (Fantasista) was awarded the Noma Prize for New Writers in 2003. Ore ore (It’s Me, It’s Me), an unsettling story about a young man who suffers an identity crisis after getting tangled up in a telephone scam, won the Kenzaburō Ōe Prize in 2011; and his Yoru wa owaranai (The Night Never Ends) took the Yomiuri Prize for Literature (Fiction) in 2015. Hoshino employs a highly original style to toy with and subvert unconventional scenarios. His other works include the novels Ronrī hātsu kirā (Lonely Hearts Killer) and Niji to Kuroe no monogatari (The Tale of Chloë and the Rainbow); and the story collection Warera neko no ko (We the Children of Cats, tr. 2012).http://hoshinot.asablo.jp/blog/pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=HoshinoBooks by this author